


Evil Takes A Sick Day

by CrossBownes



Category: Original Work
Genre: But superheroes and stuff, Evil Plans, Gen, It's like Perry and Doofenschmirtz, Robots, Sick Character, Sickfic, Superheroes, Supervillains, that's basically it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossBownes/pseuds/CrossBownes
Summary: In which a doctor gets sick and his sworn enemy has to help him.
Relationships: Original Male Character & Original Male Character
Kudos: 2





	Evil Takes A Sick Day

Captain Star tapped his foot on nothing as he pulled back his glove to look at his watch. Almost noon—surely the city should be on fire by now. 

The superhero floated in a slow turn in the air, looking around the shining skyscrapers of MetroTown. He’d been flying around for almost two hours already, and yet there was still no sign of Dr. Mayhem. The Captain’s rival _never_ missed a chance to scheme. Every day he’d have some new superweapon or master plan to take over the city, and every day Captain Star would stop him. But today...nothing. With his super-vision, Star could see some nervous looks on the faces of the citizens far below him in the streets, glancing anxiously down the streets but carrying on with their business. 

The superhero huffed with annoyance, crossing his arms. It was almost rude at this point. Had the doctor no regard for punctuality? As much as Captain Star liked being the guardian of the city, it was a bit tedious being on duty 24-7. Besides, spandex just wasn’t comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. Usually Captain Star would be able to foil Dr Mayhem’s latest plan and be back in his civilian identity by lunch. Speaking of which, the hero was starting to get hungry as well. That was it. Captain Star threw his hands up in the air before gathering himself and launching off, zipping between skyscrapers like slalom poles as he rocketed towards the villain’s lair.

If it were possible, the seemingly inconspicuous warehouse by the MetroTown docks looked even more inconspicuous than usual. Captain Star knew that was usually by design—more often than not, whenever he paid this place a visit the ground would drop out under his feet to try and drop him into a lava pit (which he would easily evade by flying) or a robot dog would try and chew his leg off (and dent its teeth in the process—if bullets couldn’t break his skin, neither could hydraulic jaws). 

But today, as the Captain landed quietly on the asphalt, nothing jumped out at him, no death ray fired from the windows of the run-down building. The property really was as unremarkable as it first seemed: the broken windows and graffitied brick walls did an excellent job of giving off the air of an abandoned building that wasn’t even remarkable enough to sneak into. In fact, the only intriguing thing about the place was the scrap heaps on the property, remnants of half-finished robots or superweapons the Captain had broken to pieces.

Captain Star approached, stepping over piles of junk as he headed for one of the dented bay doors, which hung slightly ajar. It seemed to be rusted in place, but a firm yank from the hero was enough to break it free enough for him to step inside. The interior was just as eerily quiet as the exterior, which was probably more unsettling than it should have been. Star walked past machinery covered in tarps and tables covered in old blueprints and spent power cells, narrowing his eyes as he spied a light on in the office overlooking the warehouse floor. That’s where Mayhem must be hiding. 

Captain Star turned on his heel, marching towards the stairs up to the office when a harsh, grating growl caught his ears. He turned just in time to see a blur of steel rushing towards him, an impact to his leg almost knocking him off-balance. The hero looked down at the mechanical hound clamping its jaws uselessly against his knee and sighs. He reached down, grabbing it by the body and firmly pulling it off. 

“Yes, yes, hello to you too, Bark-o-tron. Good effort, but I don’t think it’s going to be any more effective than the last thousand times you tried,” he admonished, setting the robot down and pointing a disapproving finger at it when it started to step forward again, eyes fixed on his spandex-clad leg. “No...no. Bad dog. You know it’s not going to work,” he reminded it, before looking back up at the light above them. “Say, is your master home? He never showed up today.”

Bark-o-tron only growled, so Captain Star shrugged. “Well, I guess I’d better check it out for myself, then.” He marched up the stairs to the office, knocking firmly on the door before grabbing the handle and yanking it open.

The office was disorderly, as he expected. A flimsy folding table was on the verge of buckling under the weight of the papers piled on it, stacks and stacks of failed plans and scrapped designs. A small chemistry setup sat in the corner gathering dust, unused since Dr. Mayhem tried to concoct a poison that would give everyone in MetroTown insomnia. The light Captain Star had seen comes from a floor lamp in the opposing corner, turned down to low where it stood over a cheap futon covered in a messy pile of blankets.

The superhero did a slow turn, taking in the sight, smiling a bit at the memories as he spots the plans for the Mosquito Launcher Turbo. That one had been a particularly bizarre day. “Dr. Mayhem? Are you in here?” he called, looking about for another room or entrance. “I have X-ray vision, you know, you shouldn’t bother hiding.”

“H-huh…?” A faint, somewhat nasal groan came from the edge of the room. Captain Star turned to find himself looking at a pile of blankets, which wiggled and squirmed until the gaunt face of his arch-nemesis emerged. Dr. Mayhem looked more even more sickly than usual, his pale skin nearly tinged green and dark circles under his eyes. The supervillain sniffled, adjusting his askew glasses and squinting through them at the newcomer.

“Captain Star? What are you doing here? Bark-o-tron is supposed to be keeping watch all night,” the man mumbled. Captain Star rolled his eyes, recovering from the initial surprise of seeing the doctor in such a state.

“Well, to be fair, doctor, he did try. I’m not sure what you thought he would be able to accomplish, but he did try. Also…” The superhero crossed the room to pull back the heavy curtains over the office’s dusty, cracked window, allowing daylight to flood into the room. His rival flinched, recoiling a bit at the sudden brightness. “...it’s not night. It’s actually not even morning,” Captain Star added, glancing at his watch. “It’s 12:14 in the afternoon. Are you...feeling alright?” He strode back over to where the doctor still sat on the floor, swaddled in blankets and wiping his nose. “You look...ill.”

“Of course I’m alright!” Dr. Mayhem replied, blinking blearily. “I’ve...never felt better.”

“Well, you never showed up for your daily evil scheme, so I’m not sure that’s true,” Captain Star replied evenly, reaching out to put a hand to the other man’s head. Dr. Mayhem indignantly tried to swat the hero’s hand away but was too thoroughly wrapped in blankets, only managing to squirm awkwardly. The captain shook his head, standing up again. “As I thought, you’re burning up. And if you slept in this late, you’re clearly not well enough to be thinking clearly.”

“I am thinking p-perfectly clearly!” Dr. Mayhem protested, but the superhero merely ignored him.

“I’m going to get you some Tylenol. Don’t go anywhere,” the captain ordered, pointing at the thin man sternly. “And definitely don’t try any scheming, understand? There’s plenty of time for that when you’re feeling better.” With that, Captain Star turned and made his way back out of the office, turning a deaf ear to the indignant denials that followed him.

“I do _not_ need Tylenol! And you may be able to foil my plans, captain, but you’ll never be able to prevent me from making the-” The supervillain’s cry was cut off as his counterpart closed the office door and made his way out of the warehouse, shooing Bark-o-tron away again before launching off towards a pharmacy.

Captain Star was relieved to see that nothing has changed when he returns, carrying a grocery bag with medicine and a few cans of chicken soup. No magnet-beam had been constructed in the yard, and no mecha-suit came bursting out of the warehouse wall. He entered the building and immediately saw Bark-o-tron perk up. If robot dogs could salivate, this one was definitely drooling. Captain Star simply reached into the bag to pull out the other item he had gotten. He wound up the toy mouse, setting it on the floor and watching it scurry away. Bark-o-tron bounded to his feet with a yowl, taking off after the clockwork rodent in an instant. 

Making his way back to Dr. Mayhem’s room, he found the villain sprawled on the floor, apparently having managed to worm free of the blankets only to doze off lying on the floor a few feet away. The hero rolled his eyes again, setting his grocery bag down on a relatively clear desk and bending down to scoop up his rival, carefully laying him down on his futon and pulling a blanket over him. He turned back to the desk, taking out the items he bought and setting them out, as well as writing out a brief note with instructions on how to use them. It was a fifty-fifty shot whether the doctor would actually heed the note, but it was worth a shot. 

Captain Star exited the warehouse, taking a deep breath of fresh air. He looked up at the sky. Looks like there wouldn’t be any major plans to foil today, after all—maybe he’d finally be able to make time to watch that Netflix series he’d been hearing so much about. He winced, tugging at his suit. First things first, though, he had to get out of this spandex. He gave the warehouse one last look before launching off, satisfied that he had done his hero work for the day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, kudos and all feedback are appreciated!


End file.
